Mark Pack

The four MPs who get paid for a home that is neither in their constituency nor near Parliament

By Mark Pack | Mon 14th July 2008 - 9:00 am

MPs have two places of work – their constituency and the House of Commons. Where those two places are far apart it’s reasonable for them to receive financial support so that they can spend their time split between living in two places rather than being able to live in just the one. That’s not to say the current rules on this are perfect by any means, but the principle – ‘if work forces you to be in two places, it helps pay for it’ – is a reasonable one, and indeed one that is widely followed in non-political jobs too.

However, …

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Mark Pack

The Government wants to know who you’ve been speaking to

By Mark Pack | Mon 14th July 2008 - 8:52 am

It looks like the Government’s plans to keep tabs on everyone’s mobile phone calls and email messages are moving on a little. As the BBC reports:

Government plans to collect more data on mobile phone calls and internet usage have been further criticised as an attack on civil liberties.

The government is considering a new system which will automatically retrieve communications information from a centralised database.

Liberal Democrat Norman Baker said it was another example of Britain’s “surveillance society”

The Home Office says intercepting data is vital to fight crime and terrorism.

At present, the police and intelligence

…

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Posted in Big mad database | Tagged | 2 Comments
Will Howells

Something for the Weekend: The wheels on the bus

By Will Howells | Sun 13th July 2008 - 4:30 pm

As my roast cooks away in the oven, there’s just time for a quick Something for the Weekend. OK, I’ll probably do this blog post and then start cooking, but it sounded better the other way. Anyway, enough culinary procrastination. Let’s see what this week’s mélange has for us.

Boris wants your lack of expertise

Boris Johnson’s stock is falling, but you can help him out by submitting your design for the new Routemaster bus. This, you’ll remember, is Boris’s popular but expensive and largely pointless project to turn the clock back to the imaginary golden age of the 1950s.

Through the meduim of an exciting-looking website, Mayor Boris invites you to submit your “fun ideas for a future bus design”. In case you’re worried that you know nothing about the subject, the site is ready to reassure you: “No expertise required!”

Good fun though a competition sounds, with a top prize of £25,000 (of taxpayers’ money?), I can’t help wondering if actually getting someone with some expertise might have been a better long-term plan.

In case any of you are thinking of entering, I should warn you that you’ll be up against some stiff competition from yours truly:
Routemaster design
I’m afraid Tfl can’t return your drawings.

Meanwhile, in the London Assembly…

Apologies to readers everywhere else, but it’s not time to leave London just yet.

Hampstead and Kilburn PPC Ed Fordham went along this week to see Assembly members put questions on crime and policing to Deputy Mayor Kit Malthouse. With the issue of the estates strategy – and the closure of Hampstead police station – on the agenda, Ed was shocked to see his Assembly Member Brian Coleman (he of the bling and the expenses) leave the room when this was discussed.

As a picture paints a thousand words, Ed captured the moment by photographing Mr Coleman’s empty chair. You can see the photos and read more on his blog.

In the news

The White House has apologised for inadvertently briefing the press that Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi is a political “amateur”, “hated by many” and “one of the most controversial leaders” of a country “known for governmental corruption and vice”.

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Posted in Something for the Weekend | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Bloggers’ summer reading (Part II)

By Stephen Tall | Sun 13th July 2008 - 10:20 am

Imagine you were going on holiday this summer: which two books would you take with you? One should be a political book – whether you want to re-read it, or try something new you’ve been recommended. The other should be your own choice of summer reading – the book you’re most looking forward to reading (again, could be something new or something old). That was the question I put to some of the Lib Dems’ leading bloggers. And here’s what they said:

(Click here for Part I).

Jonathan Calder – Liberal England

The Killing of the Countryside
Harvey shows

…

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Posted in Books | Tagged , , , and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Why not write for Lib Dem Voice?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 13th July 2008 - 9:20 am

Lib Dem Voice is exactly what it says it is: “an independent, collaborative website run by Liberal Democrat activists, where any individual inside or outside the party can express their views.”

In particular, we welcome opinion pieces from party members, and have published articles by 148 different authors on a range of subjects since LDV was launched.

So, if you’ve got something to say, and want a platform which allows you to address thousands, why not submit it to Lib Dem Voice? There’s some brief guidance notes here.

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Stephen Tall

The Labour councillor who sticks up for Guantanamo and extraordinary rendition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 12th July 2008 - 7:14 pm

Never let it be said that leading Labour Hackney councillor and ultra party loyalist Luke Akehurst is unafraid to stick up for even the most unpopular of causes. Leaving aside his support for the current government, Cllr Akehurst has declared on his blog:

I am in favour of extraordinary rendition and Guantanamo Bay

Although, to be fair, we should point out that Luke does at least clarify that even he believes the US can sometimes go a little far, noting parenthetically –

(but not torture in Abu Graib)

It’s good to know even Cllr Akehurst can’t ignore all abuses of …

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Posted in Local government | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem chief whip broke Parliamentary rules

By Stephen Tall | Sat 12th July 2008 - 6:52 pm

Paul Burstow, Lib Dem MP for Sutton & Cheam, has been criticised by the Parliamentary standards commissioner John Lyon for sending newsletters to constituents at taxpayers’ expense. The BBC has the full story here:

Chief whip Paul Burstow used pre-paid Commons envelopes to send the material attacking a Tory rival to voters in his Sutton and Cheam constituency. But Standards Commissioner John Lyon said the pre-paid service was not meant for party political campaigning. Mr Burstow has apologised and offered to repay the £1,500 postage costs. …

Mr Burstow said he had stopped the practice “as soon as I discovered what

…

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Posted in News | 15 Comments
Peter Black

Opinion: One year on

By Peter Black | Sat 12th July 2008 - 1:20 pm

This week saw the first anniversary of the One Wales Government, the coalition deal that put Plaid Cymru into government in Wales in alliance with Labour. To mark that occasion the Welsh Liberal Democrats staged a debate on the record of that Government, highlighting the many unfulfilled promises and the problems facing the two parties in delivering an uncosted wish-list.

A few ministers over the last few weeks have sought to deflect criticism by responding to several attacks by saying that ‘you have to be in government to change things’. However, what is clear and what has been demonstrated in …

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Posted in Op-eds and Wales | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Bloggers’ summer reading (Part I)

By Stephen Tall | Sat 12th July 2008 - 10:20 am

Imagine you were going on holiday this summer: which two books would you take with you? One would be a political book – whether you want to re-read it, or try something new you’ve been recommended. The other would be your own choice of summer reading – the book you’re most looking forward to reading (again, could be something new or something old).

That was the scenario I put to some of the Lib Dems’ leading bloggers. Here’s what they said:

Paul Walter – Liberal Burblings

1. Asquith. by Roy Jenkins I have now read Jenkins’ Churchill (wonderful), his

…

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Posted in Books | Tagged and | 13 Comments
Mark Pack

Reassuring words to find in a government consultation paper

By Mark Pack | Fri 11th July 2008 - 4:44 pm

“The consultation paper considers several questions but in particular looks at:

  • Pertinent issues…”

Phew, that’s a relief. (Page 3 of the Election Day – Weekend Voting consultation paper if the knowledge that it contains content relevant to its subject hasn’t put you off.)

Posted in News | Tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

The best waste of £200,000 of public money?

By Mark Pack | Fri 11th July 2008 - 4:08 pm

Having been tagged in this meme, which so far has featured Ann Winteron, Henry VIII and helicopters, I fear my contribution is rather dull: it’s the £200,000 the United Kingdom Passport Agency had to spend to make its old computer system millenium compliant because of big problems with its new one (remember the huge passport delays of summer 1999?). And in the interests of keeping the internet neat and tidy, I won’t tag anyone else 🙂

Posted in News | 2 Comments
Alex Foster

Clegg banned from Pershore

By Alex Foster | Fri 11th July 2008 - 3:45 pm

LIBERAL Democrat leader Nick Clegg has been blocked from holding a meeting at Pershore Care Centre

The Evesham Journal has all the details.

It seems the case that councils are all to ready to overlook their rules on political meetings when its ministerial visits to highlight achievements, and much less forgiving when it’s opposition parliamentarians visiting to highlight problems.

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Alex Foster

ID Cards – what do young people think?

By Alex Foster | Fri 11th July 2008 - 2:31 pm

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has launched a site for young people to let her know their thoughts on ID cards.

As you’d expect from any government website, the site is neutral, presents the arguments for and against in a balanced and responsible way, and allows young people themselves to do most of the talking.

Erm… well, it’s not like that at all.

The site is so much in favour of ID cards that it wouldn’t be too much to accuse them of astroturfing.  Clicking on “Info about ID Cards” brings up a page called “Myths about ID Cards” which even to my …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

How has your MP been voting over detention without charge?

By Mark Pack | Fri 11th July 2008 - 12:25 pm

The good folks over at Public Whip have a new service that lets you select your own view on how long people should be held without charge and then see how your MP’s record matches up. The service is at www.publicwhip.org.uk/fortytwodays

Posted in Parliament | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

Haltemprice and Howden: what lessons to be learned?

By Stephen Tall | Fri 11th July 2008 - 10:07 am

The close-of-poll predictions last night proved to be pretty accurate: David Davis easily won in yesterday’s Haltemprice and Howden by-election, with a solid 72% of the vote. The turnout was 34%, and the Greens pipped the English Democrats to second place by 44 votes, both polling 7%. No other candidates retained their deposits.

• David Michael Davis – Conservative Party 17,113, 72%
• Shan Oakes – Green Party 1,758, 7%
• Joanne Robinson – English Democrats 1,714, 7%
• Tess Culnane – National Front Britain for the British 544, 2%
• Gemma Dawn Garrett – Miss Great Britain Party 521, 2% …

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged and | 27 Comments
Stephen Tall

Davis wins by-election with 75% vote on a 35% turnout

By Stephen Tall | Fri 11th July 2008 - 1:07 am

Well, that’s what the Yorkshire Post is saying, anyway, as of 12.30 am:

David Davis was tonight expected to easily win the Haltemprice and Howden by-election, with supporters predicting he would pick up at least 75 percent of the vote. …

Turnout was annouced officially as 34.5 percent – less than half that at the 2005 General Election, where 70.2 percent of constituents voted.

Mr Davis is expected to pick up between 15,000 and 16,000 votes, giving him a majority of about 10,000 to 12,000 – doubling that of the 5,116 majority he picked up in 2005.

The biggest surprise of the night

…

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Posted in News and Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged | 14 Comments
Stephen Tall

BBC Question Time: open thread

By Stephen Tall | Thu 10th July 2008 - 9:50 pm

Julia Goldsworthy, Lib Dem MP for Falmouth and Camborne and the party’s spokeswoman on communities and local government, is one of the panellists on tonight’s Question Time (broadcast on BBC1 and online from 10.35 pm GMT).

The panel will also include the Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander, former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, television presenter and business woman Saira Khan and the winner of the people’s panellist competition Michael Heaver.

So, if you want to sound-off as you watch, please feel free to use the comments thread.

Posted in Lib Dem TV | Tagged and | 27 Comments
Stephen Tall

Open (speculation) thread: What do you think will happen in Haltemprice and Howden?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 10th July 2008 - 2:00 pm

It’s the day of the most bizarre by-election of the year. Exactly one month after David Davis shocked the political world by quitting the Tory front bench and Parliament in protest at Labour’s attempts to push through 42 days detention without trial, the voters of Haltemprice and Howden today deliver their verdict.

Will they judge Mr Davis’s move a brave, principled stance by turning out in force and giving him a whopping mandate? Or will they judge it all a vanity-exercise, a waste of taxpayers’ time and money, and simply stay away or register a protest vote with a fringe …

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Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged | 20 Comments
Stephen Tall

David Davis APOLOGY alert: Grauniad confirms slip-up

By Stephen Tall | Thu 10th July 2008 - 9:53 am

Yesterday I noted with some dismay a quote attributed to David Davis in The Guardian, suggesting that the Lib Dems had ‘funked’ putting up a candidate in today’s Haltemprice and Howden by-election – when in fact Mr Davis and Nick Clegg came to an agreement that the Lib Dems would not contest the seat before the former Tory shadow home secretary announced his resignation.

I’ve just received the following email from Martin Wainwright, the Guardian journalist who authored the piece:

Just to alert you asap to the fact that the quote attributed to David Davis by me about the LIb

…

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Posted in News and Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged | 27 Comments
Stephen Tall

If Brown is Heathcliff, who does that make Clegg or Cameron?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 10th July 2008 - 9:45 am

From today’s Indy:

Gordon Brown has likened himself to Heathcliff, the brooding, intense character in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. The Prime Minister is normally at pains to avoid being compared with other figures but his guard dropped in an interview with New Statesman, published today, in which the interviewer, Gloria De Piero, suggested to Mr Brown that many women viewed him as a Heathcliff-like figure.

Given that the character is famed for his vindictive side, the Prime Minister might have been expected to recoil in horror at such a comparison. But no. “Absolutely correct,” he replied, before adding: “Well, maybe an

…

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Posted in Books and News | 12 Comments
Mark Pack

Conservatives fall out over MEP expenses reform

By Mark Pack | Wed 9th July 2008 - 11:27 pm

Barely had David Cameron completely a press conference today outlining his plans to crack down on expenses abuse by Conservative MEPs, when the BBC got hold of a memo from one of those MEPs slating his proposals. Sky has the full text of the memo, which is well worth a read.

Posted in Europe / International | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

The day David Davis threatened to punch Mark Oaten

By Stephen Tall | Wed 9th July 2008 - 10:27 pm

As revealed by Mark Oaten over at the Indy’s Open House blog:

We haven’t always been the best of friends: he once threatened to punch my nose in, and I’ve described him as disgusting.

The reason:

When I came close to wobbling on 90 days he held firm. (That’s also when he informed me that if I did shift my position he would punch me in the nose.)

Which seems fair enough to me. And Mark’s endorsement of Mr Davis couldn’t be warmer:

I, for one, support his decision wholeheartedly, and this week I went up to canvass for him in Haltemprice and Howden,

…

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Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #72

By Stephen Tall | Wed 9th July 2008 - 9:59 pm

Welcome to the 72nd of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (29th June – 5th July), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed.

Let’s get straight down to it, in descending order of popularity:

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Posted in Best of the blogs | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Are you on your way to the Forum?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 9th July 2008 - 8:27 pm

Don’t forget, if you’re a party member you can register for the Lib Dem Voice members’ forum – in which case you get to read and post on a rich variety of topics which don’t always make it into the public blog. Here’s a selection of the currently active threads to whet your appetites:

* MPs expenses
* Iran – a dangerous impasse
* Henley result
* The race to succeed Nicol Stephen
* Welsh Euro List
* What are the Lib Dems doing about David Davis?
* What would you do in Glasgow East?
* Who’d be an MP?

(Disclaimer: though LDV’s forum moderators do our best …

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Stephen Tall

PMQs: Vince tackles Harriet on housing

By Stephen Tall | Wed 9th July 2008 - 6:24 pm

It was all-change at Prime Minister’s Questions this week, as Gordon Brown was detained at the G8 summit – which meant a turn in the spotlight for the party leaders’ deputies, Harriet Harman, William Hague and Vince Cable.

Vince led on the crisis in the housing industry, demanding to know of Ms Harman if Labour will “build up their sensible but pathetically small programme for acquiring property and give genuine freedom to councils and housing associations to acquire property in order to let it out to the 1.7 million people in housing need on waiting lists?” As is traditional, his question went unanswered.

Particularly delicious was Vince’s suggestion that Mr Brown stop “lecturing us on what we should eat for dinner, and competing with the leader of the Conservative party to be the country’s weight watcher-in-chief”.

With mounting speculation that Ms Harman might just be prepared to step into the breach should Mr Brown be evicted from No. 10 by the comrades in grey suits, it was a big day for her: she will not be best pleased by the reviews. When last Ms Harman stood in for the PM, she attracted glowing praise for besting Mr Hague at the despatch box. But she didn’t hit her stride this time, with her attempts at jokes appearing overly pre-rehearsed.

Whether this would matter a jot in the event of a vacancy is moot – after all, according to PoliticsHome.com’s PH5,000 tracker of popular opinion, two-thirds of the public rarely if ever catch PMQs, even as a snippet on TV or radio news bulletins. However, as Ming Campbell discovered to his eventual cost, it’s certainly noticed by political commentators, and even one poor showing can prove detrimental to how a politician is depicted in the media.

Anyway you can judge for yourselves below, via YouTube and Hansard:

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Posted in Parliament | Tagged | 5 Comments
The Voice

Alan Beith to publish his View from the North

By The Voice | Wed 9th July 2008 - 5:42 pm

Alan Beith: A View from the NorthSir Alan Beith, the longest-serving Liberal Democrat MP, is to launch his autobiography Alan Beith: A View from the North at this autumn’s party conference in Bournemouth.

We’re promised that the book will include the Lib-Lab pact of the late 1970s, Paddy Ashdown’s years at the head of the party, and Sir Alan’s work overseeing the intelligence and security services over more than a decade.

It will also cover his experiences over 35 years as MP for England’s northernmost constituency, the philosophy of Liberalism and the …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

David Davis: a bounder and a braggart

By Stephen Tall | Wed 9th July 2008 - 4:27 pm

UPDATE: There is an update to this story, published the following day on Lib Dem Voice, in which The Guardian makes clear that the quote on which this posting was based was not uttered by David Davis.

David Davis has had many warm words written about him by Lib Dems – myself included – since he took his decision to quit Parliament to fight for his beliefs in civil liberties, and most notably Labour’s obscene push to detain without charge for up to 42 days.

True, there have also been some harsh words written about him – but

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Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged | 16 Comments
Terry Gilbert

Opinion: Greens may do well in Haltemprice and Howden

By Terry Gilbert | Wed 9th July 2008 - 2:49 pm

The decision by the Lib Dem leadership to allow David Davis to resign in the comfortable knowledge that no Liberal Democrat would oppose him was a strange one. Without Lib Dem acquiescence, the by-election almost certainly would not have taken place. As it is, it seems unlikely to me to do much to fracture the Tories’ current revival, and it may allow the party’s opponents to gain valuable ground, and not just in Haltemprice and Howden.

Who, then, might do well enough in the by-election to gain ground while the Liberal Democrat by-election machine twiddles its thumbs? Could someone …

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged | 9 Comments
Tim Leunig

Vince wows the IFS

By Tim Leunig | Wed 9th July 2008 - 9:21 am

On Monday Vince Cable gave the 2008 Institute for Fiscal Studies Annual Lecture. (The Telegraph, among others, has highlighted his speech).

This lecture is the sort of thing that Chancellors and members of the monetary policy get to give, not opposition politicians. It says something of the respect with which Vince is held by serious economists that he was invited to deliver it. And did he deliver. This was a serious speech, by a serious economist, for serious economists. If that’s you, read it in full.

For most people it was a speech about bubbles, going back to the Tulip …

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Posted in News | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

Welsh Lib Dems choose Alan Butt Philip as lead Euro candidate

By Stephen Tall | Tue 8th July 2008 - 8:45 pm

The Welsh Lib Dems website has the full story, “We can win,” says Welsh Lib Dem Euro candidate (and quite a lot of psephology):

Welsh Liberal Democrat members across Wales have selected Dr. Alan Butt Philip as their lead candidate for the 2009 European Parliament elections. And having won one election, Alan Butt Philip is confident he can lead the campaign to become the first Welsh Liberal Democrat MEP.

Based on the 2007 Regional Assembly Election, an election that resembles the European Elections in its proportionality, the Welsh Liberal Democrat’s only need a 2.45% swing from Labour to take

…

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Posted in Europe / International and Selection news | 8 Comments
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